


Zin-Azshari

by The_Rose



Series: My(iev) Verse [5]
Category: Warcraft - All Media Types, World of Warcraft
Genre: Direct follow up from the last, F/M, Lots of reference and foreshadowing, My(iev) Verse, Zin-azshari
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:42:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27563992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Rose/pseuds/The_Rose
Summary: After seeing how depressed Illidan was, Maiev is well-decided to help get better. Her best solution is to bring him away from their home for a weekend and change his mind, and for that, she decides to bring him to Zin-azshari, the capital of the Kaldorei empire.
Relationships: Maiev Shadowsong/Illidan Stormrage
Series: My(iev) Verse [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1578724
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	Zin-Azshari

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Here's the last one-shot from the weekly updates, and it's the My(iev) Verse ^^
> 
> I hope you will enjoy!

Before the sun could even appear from behind the horizon, basking the forest with the sweet rays of sunshine like every morning, Maiev jumped out of her bed and looked nervously around her. Illidan was still in a really deep sleep state, even though he noticed the sudden absence of Maiev and used his arm to look after her, only to groan and turn around, grabbing and hugging the blanket now that he was alone in bed. It made Maiev smile a little as he had now decided to stop wearing that false mask that everything was fine and that she was helping him become better. But it was also on a surface level, she knew it, and she could only hope that the next step would really help him, especially with how much work it had been to get everything done without him noticing anything.

She sighed and went to her wardrobe, choosing not only her clothes for the day, something light and perfect for traveling, along with some spare clothes that she quickly threw in a bag that had been waiting for her next to the bed. Illidan turned around again, still asleep, getting stuck in the blanket unknowingly, but smiling as he hugged it more, his face buried in the material. Not caring much about it, Maiev made her way to the bathroom downstairs, and quickly put water over her face to fully wake up, even if she hadn’t really slept at all from the anxiety and anticipation, and brushed her hair before tying it into a long braid falling over her bust. Satisfied with her look, she went back to the bedroom and took a deep breath.

“Illidan!” she said, shaking him from his shoulder. “Wake up! Come on, hurry.”

Despite that he had been in a deep sleep, Illidan slowly opened one of his eyes, looking at what was bothering him but as he looked at Maiev, he smiled softly.

“My?” he could only ask, not completely awake yet.

“Come on, get up,” she smiled back.

“What is it?” he yawned as he slowly sat and noticed that it was still dark outside. “Which hour is it?”

“Hurry, or we’ll miss the departure.”

For a split second, Illidan thought that he was still asleep and dreaming, but as he noticed that Maiev was already dressed and that he remembered the touch being real, he knew it wasn’t the case. Even though he was still intrigued as to what Maiev was meaning, he went to the edge of the bed and stretched, yawning once again.

“Alright, alright,” he said as he slowly got up. “But what do you mean by departure?”

It was the moment, and Maiev took another deep breath as she smiled at him.

“We are expected in Lorlathil for the carriage,” she explained. “We’re going to Zin-Azshari!”

Inside the little cabin, Illidan kept looking at the landscape through the windows, as the familiar forests slowly left place to plains with tall buildings in the background, almost unnoticeable if you didn’t know that the capital of the Kaldorei empire was actually gigantic. At the same time, he kept shaking one of his legs nervously, bouncing it like never as one of his hands clutched on the fabric of his pants. Next to him, Maiev quickly glanced at him and sighed before going back to the book she was reading, the must-do at the capital.

“Illidan, calm down,” she simply said. “You’re bothering the other passengers.”

On the other side, there were two other night elves, also glancing at Illidan and his crazy leg, but they were too polite to say anything to him.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” he said to her again. “Especially not for me! Do you know how expensive Zin-Azshari is?!”

“I know, I paid for it.”

With those words, she simply smiled and circled a paragraph in the book. Unfortunately, she couldn’t buy it before the departure, and she didn’t get to plan their weekend beforehand, but for a few essential things.

“And your work? You will miss days.”

“I told you I was taking some days off to stay with you,” she reminded him.

He muttered between his teeth, still looking outside of the windows.

“I will miss Cenarius’ lessons,” he tried.

“The lessons you haven’t attended for two months?”

“Come on My!” he finally latched out. “I don’t deserve such a gift! It’s too much!”

“I’ll let you pay for your own souvenirs, don’t worry.”

Illidan groaned and crossed his legs to stop the bouncing, only to get his other leg to start bouncing, and Maiev just sighed and went to circle another paragraph of activities to do in her book.

“Thanks,” muttered Illidan, making her smile.

On the other side, the two night elves whispered between each other and chuckled as they looked at Illidan and Maiev.

The tall and white buildings were reaching the sky, only to be surpassed by the palace of the Queen Azshara herself, standing proud in the middle of the gigantic city. All around them, the people were wearing high tailoring clothing, while looking down at the others and especially Illidan and Maiev, whose clothes clearly told anyone they weren’t from the city.

“Well, it’s not that different from Suramar,” shrugged Illidan, while regretting to have left all of his fancy clothes in his home, and had none to take with him when Maiev had announced it was their destination.

“Don’t care about that, it’s not worth it.”

“Oh, I don’t care,” half-lied Illidan. “So, what’s the plan, now that we are here?”

“Well, it’ll be noon soon enough, so we could find something to eat, but we’ll need to get close to the Well for the first activity that I have planned.”

“And can I know what it is?” asked Illidan, intrigued now that Maiev had talked about the Well.

“That’s a surprise,” she winked.

“Well, let’s go then.”

Checking on a map that Maiev had bought, they orientated themselves towards the center of the city and the main attraction of the capital, the Well of Eternity and Azshara’s palace, both representing the greatness of their Empire. Taking their time through the streets, they looked at the little shops along the way, memorizing the kind of souvenirs they would bring back for themselves before leaving the city. Looking at some little wood sculptures of different animals, Illidan began to think that it would probably be a really good gift for his brother, until he remembered he hadn’t seen, nor talked to him in over two months, and he wasn’t sure how he would react if he came back from Zin-Azshari with a gift and pretending that everything was fine.

“Illidan?” asked Maiev as she saw his face getting dark once again.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” he quickly brushed it off, smiling at her. “I was just wondering if I would have enough money to buy everything I want.”

“Liar,” said a little voice in Maiev’s head, but she shook it off and smiled back before speaking out loud to him. “Well, choose wisely then.”

“Yeah, you’re right, I’ll buy the souvenirs before we leave. It’ll be better like that.”

And quickly, Illidan turned around and looked up to the palace who was getting closer at every one of their steps. Meanwhile, Maiev looked at the little sculptures that Illidan was checking and sighed as she also turned around, really hoping that she made the right choices, and that it would help Illidan. She quickly joined him and grabbed his hand.

“Come on! We can’t be late for our first activity,” she smiled at him. “And we still need to eat something.”

“Oh yeah, of course,” Illidan quickly smiled back as he looked at their hands, linked together.

After a few more minutes wandering through the maze that was the streets of Zin-Azshari, they finally reached their main destination, the border of the Well of Eternity, and thanks to the map, they reached the part that had been transformed into a park. Families; Couples; Students; the park was busy with all of those peoples enjoying some countryside in the very center of the capital. But it wasn’t the only reason that people were brought to that place, and Illidan quickly noticed it. As if something had taken over him, he walked right to the Well, not caring about anything else and once he reached the border, he stopped and looked at the gigantic body of swirly water. The source of their magic.

Slowly, he crouched and brought his hand towards the surface, completely hypnotized by the power that was emanating from the giant lake, only to be stopped by Maiev as she put a hand over his shoulder.

“Ahem,” she said as she pointed to a sign next to them, clearly saying that it was forbidden to touch the water. “I don’t really want to end in jail.”

Snapped out of the hypnotize, Illidan stepped back, impressed by how powerful he was feeling just by standing next to the Well, then he looked at Maiev and chuckled.

“Indeed, I would hate to end in jail too.”

Now that Illidan was past his first impression of the Well and had better control over himself, they slowly left the park while still following the border of the Well, getting back into the busy part of the city until they found an inn who was really close from the palace. Maiev was the first one to stop, checking the prices that were disclosed on the front door and realizing that it was really interesting.

“Hey, this inn has some good formula if we eat and stay for the night there,” she told Illidan, checking his interest. “And if we are lucky, we might get a room with a sight on the Well and the palace.”

“Sounds good! Let’s go see if they still have rooms available.”

After a quick deal with the innkeeper, they ended up getting a room for both of them, with separate beds, and finally got a meal for lunch.

“My… Are you serious?!” yelled Illidan, panicking completely.

The woman simply shrugged as her smirk wouldn’t leave her face now that they had reached the place of their first activity, the one that mattered the most for that trip. It was now or never for Illidan to decide whether his vocation would be druidism or magic.

“The Queen’s Royal Guards’ demonstration?! Who is constantly recruiting?! And that we can show off our skills in front of them?! Today?!”

Illidan kept yelling, nervously pacing as he was looking at the section of the palace that was used as the training ground for the Royal Guards, and elite of mage who had sworn to protect the Queen and the capital no matter what. And unlike the other elite that was the Highborn, the Royal Guards would accept anyone from any background as long as they were good enough with magic. They would also often demonstrate their abilities in public, as a way to get people to join them, and Maiev had been very careful to choose one of those days for their travel, as if Illidan could show how good of a mage he was, the possibility of joining the Guards was really high. Now, she only had to convince Illidan to take that chance.

“I know you will do great,” she smiled at him. “I’m sure you will impress them.”

“My, listen, I love you but you are crazy. I’m nowhere near their level; I never had proper training, and I will just humiliate myself.”

Despite that Maiev’s heart skipped a beat at the “I love you” and that she perfectly knew that he didn’t mean it in the same way that she wanted it to be, she concentrated on the more important, convincing Illidan to just give a chance.

“But you want to become a mage no? It would be a really good occasion for you to get help for it.”

The sudden cheer coming from the crowd interrupted them, forcing them to look at what was happening, only to see that the Captain Varo’then had finally appeared, meaning that the demonstration would soon start. They perfectly knew how to captivate their audience and they would put on a real show to prove how good they were, and how awesome it would be to join them. As the first guards began to spare between each other, doing more of an arcane dance than really fighting, Maiev noticed that Illidan had his eyes locked on them, while rocking impatiently on his feet. He was really happy to be there and witness the show, but he was also really nervous about the possibility of being part of that show himself.

“You know, I won’t force you,” added Maiev as she also looked at the Mages sparing. “But I really think you’ll miss out if you don’t give it a try.”

Illidan just let out an indecisive whimper.

“I also know that you would prefer being a mage than a druid, and I just want to help because you look so depressed when you speak about druidism,” she added, speaking sincerely.

Illidan glanced at her and whimpered a little more as he locked his eyes on the show once again.

“My parents will kill me if they learn about this,” he simply muttered, but with the voice of someone who had already accepted his fate.

As the mages finished their show by showing off their ice abilities, sculpting an ice statue of the Queen Azshara, they bowed in front of the cheering crowd as Varo’then slowly went back on the place, applauding his subordinates who once again, didn’t disappoint him in the slightest.

“Thank you all to have come today,” he began, looking at the crowd in front of him. “As you have seen, the Royal Guards can use all kinds of magic, as it is the most efficient in fighting all kinds of enemies. But some of us can also specialize in one kind of magic, like our dear Koltharius who can burn down an entire dorm in one snap.”

“Hey, it was one time,” yelled the man in question, smirking and shrugging while the other guards laughed.

It was all part of the show, bragging about how powerful they were to keep impressing the crowd, while showing off how well they were getting along. Everything they were doing was to convince more and more people to join them, no matter what.

“Well, now we are going to start our favorite part of the demonstration,” said Varo’then, changing the subject. “Your demonstration!”

While saying that, he opened his arms to show the crowd in front of him, only to get them to cheer even more loudly as some people began to prepare themselves to get the chance of their life. And soon enough, a line started and Varo’then welcomed the first participant to show them their magic skill.

“So, what do you decide?” asked Maiev. “Do you want to give it a shot or not?”

Silence answered her as Illidan looked at that first man, trying to show off too much and getting one of the fireballs he was summoning to explode in his face. Finally, he turned towards Maiev, his golden eyes shining brightly with determination.

“I will,” he said. “But first, can you bless me as a priestess?”

Maiev chuckled as she reached her hands to him and that he gladly took as Maiev began to whisper the words of the blessing prayer, summoning Elune’s caring to help Illidan. As a moon crescent softly appeared in front of his forehead, Maiev closed his hands in prayer and thanked Elune to have answered her call.

“Thank you My,” he softly smiled.

“You’re welcome,” she quickly replied, smiling back. “Now, go and show them who’s the best mage in the entire empire!”

Finally feeling ready, Illidan made his way towards the line, stretching his body in preparation for the intensive demonstration, but he also began to think about what he would show. Most of the participants were going for powerful attack spells, only relying on brute force to show off, but Illidan knew better than that. Magic was more than throwing fireballs or ice spears in the face of your opponent. Magic was also something you could use in your everyday life, and he was going to show them that he perfectly knew about that. Then he would use the offensive spells.

“Next,” said Varo’then as he shook his head at the woman who had failed her demonstration, probably because of the stress.

Nervously, Illidan entered the circle that was drawn on the ground, being careful to not break the sigils as it was a shield spell, both preventing spells to enter the place, but also preventing them to leave, both protecting the Guards and the crowd. Putting himself in the center, Illidan slowly regretted his decision as he realized that everyone was looking at him, but it was too late to get out. And he wanted to show how good he was.

“Alright, you can start,” Varo’then said. “Show us what you’re capable of.”

Breathing calmly, Illidan crouched and put a hand on the ground, smiling immediately as he felt the ley line pulsing under his palm. Of course, they would make their demonstration where they would be powerful, and it wasn’t surprising him either that there was such a strong line right next to the Well. As he knew that his spell couldn’t fail at all, he straightened up and took a little stone from one of his pouches and made a hole in it, then he grabbed another of his pouch and took out the different materials from it. While doing that, he quickly glanced at the captain, who was only nodding with approbation as he realized what Illidan was doing. Putting the materials inside the stone, Illidan closed his hands on it and brought it to his face, whispering a spell that made the stone float, shining brightly in front of him. And with a snap, the stone exploded, only leaving a portal in the middle of the place.

“Neolain,” yelled Varo’then to one of his subordinates. “Go try that portal.”

“Yes, Sir!” replied the Night Elf.

Jumping through the portal, the man quickly reappeared, bowing to the captain.

“It led me to Val’Sharah.”

“Nice,” simply said Varo’then as he dismissed the other guard before going back to Illidan. “Is that all that you want to show?”

“Absolutely not, I just wanted to show the hardest spell first.”

With just a movement from his hand, the captain told Illidan to keep going and he nodded as a way to say that he understood. He quickly glanced at Maiev, still in the crowd as she was watching him carefully, her hands in prayer, and he knew he couldn’t fail anymore. Breathing calmly, he began by summoning both a fireball, and an arcane ball in his hands, a little trick that made him proud as usually, people needed to summon the same type of magic. Then, he threw them towards the sky, as high as he could, and he spun on himself, summoning an ice spear as he did, and finally, threw it on the balls, making them explode in the air.

But as he prepared another spell, he heard a snap coming from the captain, and suddenly, he noticed from the corner of his eyes that one of the guards was casting an explosion spell right towards him. Trying to react as fast as he could, Illidan began to summon an arcane shield between him and the explosion, but he only got to make a small one, and the blast threw him back on the ground, though he was unharmed.

“Good, good,” said Varo’then as he put a stop to the demonstration. “Can you come here for a moment?”

Despite being a little groggy from the fall, Illidan made his way towards the captain who was waiting for him on the side, bummed that the intervention made him fail his spell.

“Can I get your name?” he asked.

“Illidan Stormrage.”

“I will be honest with you kiddo, it wasn’t bad at all but you need to keep training to fit with us… Where are you practicing?”

“Nowhere, I’m self-taught.”

Varo’then whistled and laughed a little.

“Whoa, it’s not every day that someone self-taught has your level,” he complimented. “I have absolutely no doubt that you will be able to join us if you start training with some good mages… Where are you living? You don’t seem to be from here.”

“I’m from Val’Sharah.”

“I should have guessed, that’s why you made that portal that easily… Really impressive for your level,” added Varo’then. “But Val’Sharah… Let’s see… Do you think you could travel easily to Azsuna?”

“I think, why that?”

“The Nar’thalas Academy is bounded by ours, I could probably get you a place there, with a special course to make sure you would have all the knowledge and abilities needed to join us.”

“Really?!” Could only ask Illidan, suddenly feeling like his dream of becoming a mage wasn’t a dream anymore.

“Yes, just leave us your address and we will re-contact you as soon as we can do something.”

After giving away all the personal information they needed, Varo’then freed Illidan, who went running towards Maiev who was still waiting for him in the crowd and had been worried since they tried to sabotage his demonstration with the attack, but when she saw the bright smile all over his face, she knew it wasn’t really a problem. Before she could react, he grabbed her in his arms and lifted her from the ground.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” he began to repeat while laughing.

“So I guess it went well,” she awkwardly asked as he didn’t seem to want to put her back on the ground.

“Yes! As expected, I don’t have the level yet, but they might get me a place in Nar’thalas and then, I will join them once I will learn magic with good teachers!”

“See?! You were worried for nothing, I knew you could do it!”

“Thank you, My! Thank you!”

“Now, could you please put me back on the ground?”

“Oh yeah, sorry,” he quickly said as he noticed he had been holding her for quite some time now.

As he put her back on the ground, Maiev felt her heart racing in her chest, but she was also feeling as happy as he was. She had made the right choice after all, and the smile he was wearing on his face was worth everything.

“So, now that this is done,” she began. “We can afford to check some shops or just wander in the city until tonight.”

“Sounds great! Let’s go.”

After a really busy afternoon where they tried to explore the entirety of the city on the border of the Well, Illidan and Maiev went back to the inn of the morning, where their room was waiting for them. First, they stopped by the dining hall to get their dinner where they talked about the next day.

“So, how will the return trip go?” asked Illidan between two bites.

“We will be expected at the carriage stop by 4pm maximum, and there, once everyone is there and that everything has been checked, we will make our way back to Val’Sharah.”

“We will get there late,” calculated Illidan. “Will it be alright?”

“Oh yeah, we can always take a hippogriff from Lorlathil to my house, we’ll only have to walk a little.”

“Okay, if you say so. But it means we only have a few hours to find the souvenirs we want to buy right?”

“It will depend on when we wake up. But if we are awake early, it shouldn’t be a problem. If we sleep until past noon, it will be a problem.”

“I trust us,” declared Illidan. “Especially that I really want to go to one shop in particular tomorrow, but it might take a while there…”

“Really? Which shop?”

“It’ll be my own surprise,” he winked at her.

“Oh great,” she rolled her eyes, not trusting him with surprises.

He just laughed and went back to his food, Maiev mimicking him. Now, all that they wanted, was to rest after all the emotions of the day.

Maiev was feeling weird. They were sharing a room, like they were used to at her own house, but the fact that they were in separate beds was bothering her as she wasn’t used to that. Sure, she had to learn to let go of that, as after all, they were just best friends and that there was no reason for them to share a bed that much, but she liked it too much to say something about it. It was like the only way she could be intimate with Illidan, and she was loving every second of it, despite knowing that it was wrong and that she should finally put a stop to her own feelings. Illidan was loving someone else, and he had probably never even thought of Maiev as anything else than his friend. She had to accept it.

After all, she was the only staying awake, thinking about such a thing when Illidan was probably already deeply asleep, not even caring about the fact that they were sharing the bedroom. Understanding that it was going too far, Maiev quickly tried to shut down her brain and let sleep take her, as it was the best thing she could do at that moment. But as she finally felt herself drifting away, a sudden weight over the mattress woke her up and she barely had the time to do or say anything that Illidan was locking his arms around her waist.

“Sorry My, I can’t sleep like that,” he simply muttered.

Maiev held her breath. She had to say something, she had to. But what could she say? Admitting her feelings? Telling him to leave? What was the right answer at that moment?! But as she tried to open her mouth to finally say something, she heard the light snore coming from Illidan as he had fallen deep asleep right away. Letting out a hollow laugh, she put herself more comfortably and decided that it would be a night like all the others, with Illidan absolutely not realizing what was happening in her mind, but with her enjoying it at one hundred percent. And now that she was thinking about it, as long as Illidan was in her life, she wouldn’t be sad or regret it, and she could always get some fun some other way.

All that mattered now, was their friendship.

“How did I not guess?” sighed Maiev as she looked at the tailoring shop in front of them as Illidan was checking the different clothing that was exposed on the front, rubbing the material between his fingers.

“That’s a mystery,” he shrugged as he was now carefully looking at the embroidery on the shirt. “I was surprised you didn’t guess as soon as I said it was a surprise.”

“I guess I wanted a real surprise,” she quickly muttered between her teeth.

“What did you say?” innocently asked Illidan, looking back at her.

“Let’s get inside and let’s be done with that,” Maiev lied.

Approving her words, Illidan quickly stepped inside and went to lose himself in the men section of the little shop. Meanwhile, Maiev slowly walked between the aisles that were exposing the different dresses made by the tailor, looking at them without really looking as she wasn’t interested in buying new clothing, especially not at such a high price. As her sight caught a glimpse of Illidan vividly speaking with the vendor, she sighed but a small smile quickly spread on her face. Illidan always loved getting fancier clothes than what they could find in Val’Sharah, and was mostly spending his free time in Suramar where he clearly loved mixing with the upper crowd. Maiev couldn’t care less about it, but knowing it was making him happy, it was making her happy.

“Hey My, can you come here for a second?” Illidan called her, interrupting her thoughts.

“Coming.”

Quickly, she made her way towards the changing room where Illidan’s voice was coming from, only to stop right away as she found him, checking himself in a mirror as he was trying on new pants made with silk, and no shirt to be found on him.

“What do you think?” he asked, showing the pants.

“Nice,” she slowly articulated as she really tried to not look at him too much.

“You don’t seem convinced, should I try another color?”

“No, no, it’s good. Just put on a shirt please.”

And with those words, she quickly turned around to find herself another distraction while she left Illidan to deal with the clothes by himself. The young man looked at her leaving and had a small shrug as he went back to look in the mirror, trying to decide whether it would be better to take the black or white pants, only to finally decide on the black one. As he continued to look at the exposed clothing, Illidan made his way into the accessories aisle and quickly found some wristbands, and he began to wonder if he shouldn’t buy some. After all, he had liked the shirtless look, but the upper body felt way too naked and he was sure that with wristbands, it would have been better. As he quickly decided on a purple pair, he couldn’t stop glancing at the green one next to it, and with a sigh, he took them with him.

“Are you done?” asked Maiev, who was once again next to him.

“For me, yes,” he smiled, happy to have been able to find an entirely new outfit, and a gift. “And you? Found anything?”

“Absolutely not but I don’t care, let’s go.”

Maiev really didn’t care. She had all the clothes that she needed at home, and had always found it strange that habit of Illidan to keep buying clothes when he didn’t need a replacement at all, but as she saw Illidan glaring at her, she knew she made a mistake.

“What?” she could only ask.

“Come on! There’s really nothing that you want to buy here?”

“I’m sure, we are only there for you.”

Before she could add anything else, Illidan had grabbed her wrist and was dragging her back into the dress aisle, muttering on how he was going to find the perfect one for her, and Maiev had no other choice but to accept her fate. She looked at him, examining every single one of the dresses, checking the material with his fingers, glancing at Maiev, probably imagining how it would look like on her, and her only thought was that she wasn’t deserving of him. Finally, he let out a small victory laugh and grabbed a dress, lavender, and emerald, and he showed it to Maiev, proudly.

“That one will be perfect for you, don’t you think?” he said, smiling at her.

“Maybe,” she said, trying really hard to not look at the price tag on it, knowing she wouldn’t afford such an expensive dress, even if Illidan himself had chosen it for her.

“Something’s bothering you,” stated Illidan. “Is it the length? The cleavage? You don’t like those colors?”

“No, no, it’s fine,” she waved her hand. “Just that this shop is too expensive for me.”

“Oh you don’t have to worry, I’ll pay it,” smiled Illidan before quickly adding something as he noticed Maiev ready to refuse. “Take it as an early birthday gift.”

“Oh please, don’t tell me I forgot about it again.”

“No, this isn’t today,” laughed Illidan. “But it’ll be soon enough so it counts! But seriously My, how can you keep forgetting about your own birthday constantly?”

“Because I don’t care, that’s not important.”

“Well, at least it allows me to surprise you,” kept laughing Illidan.

“And I swear that if you try to make a big surprise party again this year, I will lock myself in my house.”

“Understood, no surprise party!”

As they kept talking about Maiev’s next birthday, they made their way to the vendor to pay for everything that Illidan had chosen, while deciding on what would be their next step for the day before heading back to Val’Sharah.

As the sun was slowly disappearing behind the horizon, Illidan watched the landscape changing from the city and plains to the forests he knew almost by heart. Those two days had been quite packed but he was feeling better than in those last years, mostly thanks to his best friend. With the Royal Guards accepting to help him to perfect his mage training, along with a possibility to join them one day, it helped him feel better about forcing himself to go to Cenarius’ lessons. He was now planning to still go there, but only as a distraction until he would get some news about Nar’thalas.

At his side, Maiev had fallen asleep and was resting against his shoulder and he could only smile more as he glanced at her. He had no idea what he would have done if she hadn’t been there, and he was well decided to find a good way to thank her for everything she had done for him, and he knew that just a dress wouldn’t be enough. But he still had some time to find the perfect gift to offer her, especially if he ended up joining the Royal Guards.

As he realized that there was still a few hours before they would reach Val’Sharah, Illidan decided to follow Maiev’s example and rest a little, but first, as he noticed her hand between them, he grabbed it and held it before closing his eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it !
> 
> Unfortunately, english isn't my first language so if someone is interested in becoming my beta-reader for the language, hit me up on my Tumblr!  
> Or if you just want to talk about WoW, my fics, someone else fics or anything, you can still hit me up there!
> 
> https://thewritingof-therose.tumblr.com/
> 
> or on Discord
> 
> The_Rose#2429 (My personal one)  
> https://discord.gg/nvKggwc (An Illidan/Maiev Discord)
> 
> Later!
> 
> (Comments are welcomed and appreciated :D)


End file.
